It is a problem in the field of mobile communication networks to regulate the nature of the content delivered to subscribers. In particular, inappropriate content should not be purchased, downloaded, or streamed to the mobile terminal devices of young subscribers or those who elect to not receive such content. To avoid legal issues relating to young children or other subscribers receiving inappropriate materials, Mobile Service Providers are presently instituting a Content Rating system that provides a descriptive rating for all content that is either offered by Mobile Service Providers or being transported over their networks to subscribers. However, the content industry is fragmented and they offer content ratings and control solutions from multiple sources—each independently deployed and source specific in their operation and ratings. Thus, Mobile Service Providers receive inconsistently rated content from many applications sources across the network and this content requires additional rating and enforcement by the Mobile Service Provider to produce a consistent content rating that can be used not only by the Mobile Service Providers but also by the subscribers.
The various types of content to be rated include at least:                1. Music—streams and downloads        2. Video—clips and streams        3. Games—downloads and interactive formats        4. Lotteries and Gambling sources        5. Adult Texting—WEB-logging (Blogging)        6. Web contentThis content requires that a rating be assigned and associated with the content to describe not only the type of content but also its nature before the content is loaded onto a Server by either the Mobile Service Provider or the content source for delivery to the subscribers.        
The primary issue relating to the delivery of this content is how to query and enforce rules that define who can receive subscriber-appropriate content. One existing solution is to have the content source server, upon receipt of an access request from a subscriber, host a check of the subscriber identity against an internal database of subscribers maintained at the individual content source server to determine whether the requesting subscriber is authorized to receive the requested content. The disadvantage of this solution is that every content source server must be provisioned with and maintain an internal database of authorized subscribers. These databases must be frequently updated and there is likely to be inconsistencies among the databases.